Wednesday, April 25, 2012

the japanese iris

Shobu (or shoubu),
is the Japanese Iris, a flower associated with the Japanese festival commonly known as Kodomo-no-hi or Children's Day (May 5). In spite of the name, the festival mainly celebrates "boyhood," the way Hina-matsuri or Doll Day (March 3) celebrates "girlhood." Along with the koi-nobori (carp windsocks) that I have blogged about many times in the past, the Japanese Iris is one of several things displayed on Children's Day that symbolize the traditional "manly virtues" that parents hope their young sons will develop as they grow up to be men. The shape of the narrow leaves of this plant are reminiscent of the Japanese sword carried by the ancient warrior class, and the word Shobu has the same sound as another word that bears the meaning of bravely facing a challenge, or testing oneself in battle.

8 comments:

Wow! I love reading about things like this. I love the iris and for it to be used as a symbol for such reason is fascinating. I have heard of the carp windsocks before from Bella Sinclair when she lived in Japan. So fascinating. Thank you for sharing and the illustration is superb. The line work on the second image is FANTASTIC!!! WOW!

A Beginner's Guide to Etegami

what is etegami?

Etegami (e= "picture"; tegami= "letter/message") are simple drawings accompanied by a few apt words. They are usually done on postcards so that they can be easily mailed off to one's friends. Though etegami has few hard-and-fast rules, traditional tools and materials include writing brushes, sumi ink, blocks of water-soluble, mineral-based pigments called gansai, and washi postcards that have varying degrees of "bleed." They often depict some ordinary item from everyday life, especially items that bring a particular season to mind.